Cornelis Ruhtenberg

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Cornelis Ruhtenberg (November 18, 1923 - 2008)[1] was a Latvian-American painter.

Life

Ruhtenberg was born in Riga, Latvia to Hanne Helmsing Ruhtenberg, and Jan Ruhtenberg.[2][3][4] She and her two brothers grew up in Latvia, Germany, and Sweden, with the family moving to Berlin in the late 1920s after Jan received a scholarship to Berliner Technische Hochschule.[3][4] In 1931 her parents divorced, and Ruhtenberg chose to stay with her mother in Berlin while her father moved to Sweden to work.[4] She studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Kunst in Berlin between 1941 and 1946, during which time she lived with her mother.[2][3] In 1942, her senior year of high school, she broke both arms in a gymnastics accident and was thus able to avoid joining Nazi youth labor groups; by the time she had recovered, the government was more focused on the war than bureaucracy, and didn't follow up with her.[3] She maintained a low profile for the remainder of the war, despite being an associate of Karl Hofer and Max Kaus, and was not attacked by the Nazi party.[3] While laying low, she focused on her painting.[3] After the war ended, she would scavenge plywood from demolished buildings to paint on.[3] Around the same time, she was named one of Germany's 25 greatest living painters by the Prolog group, and one of only four women on the list.[3]

She immigrated to the United States in April or May 1948, where she reunited with her father, who had lived in the country since 1932.[1][5] In May of that year, she exhibited 15 paintings at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.[3] Other artists from the center said there was "no explanation for the astonishing talent she has developed under unimaginable conditions".[3]

She lived in and exhibited her art in New York City[6] before moving to Iowa with her husband, Jules Kirschenbaum, whom she had met in 1952 and who taught at Drake University.[5][7] In 1954 one of her paintings was acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.[8] She exhibited art at the Museum of Modern Art three times: in 1955, 1956, and 1962.[9] In 1957 she illustrated a children's book, Straps the Cat, which was written by Claudia Lewis.[10][11]

Ruhtenberg died in Issaquah, Washington in 2008.[2]

Style

Ruhtenberg primarily painted figures who were "caught in their own contemplative worlds", and who were more loosely and abstracted painted compared to the environments they were set in.[2][5] She favored muted colors in her works,[2][5] and tended to paint fairly flat backgrounds.[12]

Works

Three of Ruhtenberg's works are housed at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Dresden, SLUB. "Cornelis Ruhtenberg, Mexico". digital.slub-dresden.de (in German). Retrieved 2023-07-12.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Cornelis Ruhtenberg". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 2023-07-12.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Ruhtenberg Paintings Depict Great Talent During Wartime" (PDF). Colorado Springs Free Press. May 31, 1948.
  4. ^ a b c Fernandez, Megan (2011-08-01). "Loved & Lost: The Life of Jan Ruhtenberg". Indianapolis Monthly. Retrieved 2023-07-12.
  5. ^ a b c d "Works – Cornelis Ruhtenberg – People". Iowa State University eMuseum. Retrieved 2023-07-12.
  6. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 2023-07-12.
  7. ISBN 978-0-87414-155-9
    .
  8. ^ Boston, Museum of Fine Arts (1954). Annual Report of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Museum of Fine Arts. p. 28.
  9. ^ "Cornelis Ruhtenberg on MOMA Exhibition Spelunker". www.moma.org. Retrieved 2023-07-12.
  10. ^ The Publishers Weekly. F. Leypoldt. 1957. p. 99.
  11. ^ Recommended Children's Books, as Professionally Evaluated by Librarians for Librarians in Library Journal. 1957. p. 14.
  12. ISSN 0040-781X
    . Retrieved 2023-07-12.
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